DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit schools are back to in-person learning after the district implemented virtual learning to curb the city’s COVID infection rate post the holidays.
Most students and parents are super excited about having classrooms open up again.
"The way they switched to and went to virtual learning again and now they are back to in-person learning, it's wonderful as far as I’m concerned," said Addrain Mccree, mom of Jason who attends Renaissance High School.
A mother of 2, Addrain Mccree was excited to pick her son Jason from school because she says virtual learning is not always productive.
"Keeping him focused, kids, staying in focus while they are at home, the new norm was just different," said Addrain Mccree, mom of Jason who attends Renaissance High School.
That’s why Jason was super excited to catch up with friends on the first day of in-person school this year and even enjoyed some of the changes to the protocols.
"They used to test throughout the week, but now they’ve only started to test on Mondays. So now you get the test quicker and you also follow the COVID safety protocols," said Jason Mccree, 11th Grade student at Renaissance High School.
And according to DPSCD’s superintendent, Dr. Vitti a few more changes have been made starting with more student testing.
"Now that we are 94%, our goal is to be at 100% in a couple of weeks. The other change is the access to the N95 mask, so every school has a supply for every student and employee to that mask for one week time," said Dr. Nikolai Vitti, Superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District.
Dr. Vitti says the goal is to have everyone wear an N95 mask for the next 5 days and after that folks can transition to a surgical mask.
But another big step in the fight against the virus is the availability of the vaccine at schools.
"The Michigan health department and Detroit health department has given DPSCD direct access to the vaccine. In the next couple of weeks, we will be announcing, what schools and which nurses will have access to the vaccine and we are hoping to increase the vaccination rate for all of our students across the district," said Dr. Nikolai Vitti, Superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District.
So far the district is looking at implementing the mandate from the fall of 2022, to which another parent, Rolondo Campbell says it's not something that shouldn’t be enforced.
"As long as you allow people to make their own choice, most of us are going to choose to do what's best for our kids," Rolondo Campbell, parent.